 This story is renowned containing the departure of companion Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen, when, at the end of this story, The Doctor is called back to Gallifrey so forcing him to leave Sarah behind.
When Elisabeth Sladen announced her intention to leave Doctor Who, Sarah was originally supposed to be killed off in a pseudo-historical story involving aliens and the Foreign Legion. However Douglas Camfield, who was supposed to write the scripts, was unable to do so, and so the "The Hand of Fear" replaced it, much to Elisabeth Sladen's relief, as she did not want Sarah to be killed or married off. Elisabeth Sladen also asked that Sarah's departure not to be the main focus of the story, as she felt the program was about The Doctor, not the companion.
In terms of seasons, Elisabeth Sladen was the longest serving companion with any Doctor, appearing for over three seasons and surpassing Katy Manning's record as Jo Grant. Elisabeth Sladen held the record until Janet Fielding played Tegan Jovanka for three years and one month. Frazer Hines as companion Jamie McCrimmon holds the record for the longest serving companion in terms of the number of Doctor Who episodes he appeared in, although Elisabeth Sladen's total episodes, when her spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures is included, exceeds Frazer Hines' episode count. These records do not take their audio adventures into account.
After her departure, Elisabeth Sladen would reprise the role of Sarah Jane Smith in the 1981 spin-off story "K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend". She returned to the show in the Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors", in 1983, and the Thirtieth-Anniversary Children In Need special "Dimensions in Time", in 1993. She also continued to appear as Sarah in various Doctor Who-related spin-off media, including two radio dramas with Jon Pertwee ("The Paradise of Death" and "The Ghosts of N-Space"), and a series of Sarah Jane Smith Audio stories for Big Finish Productions. Elisabeth Sladen has also returned, playing the part of Sarah Jane Smith, in the revived show. In the Tenth Doctor stories: "School Reunion", in 2006, and "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" in 2008. She has also starred in her own spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures as well as a cameo at the conclusion of the Tenth Doctor's last story "The End of Time" in 2009/2010.
This story is also renowned for Sarah’s outfit making her look like Andy Pandy.
Stephen Thorne, who played the strong Kastrian Eldrad, originally played the part of Omega in the 1973 Tenth Anniversary Special "The Three Doctors" along with various other roles in the show.
This story was directed by Lennie Mayne, whose most recent work had been on "The Monster of Peladon". This however, would be his final contribution to the show.
Working titles claimed for this story were "The Hand of Death" and "The Hand of Time". However, the production notes on the DVD release state that there were no working titles for this story.
In the original script, Miss Jackson was a nameless male. Director Lennie Mayne built up the part, changed the role to a female part, and cast his wife, Frances Pidgeon.
This story has the rare instance of a quarry actually appearing in Doctor Who as a quarry, rather than posing as an alien landscape.
A real-life quarry explosion was filmed for this story. Unfortunately the crew badly underestimated the power of the explosion, and one of the cameras recording material from ground level was destroyed. Luckily the film in the case was salvaged and footage was used in the completed programme. A rumour persisted for many years that the camera was totally destroyed in the blast. However, in the DVD commentary it is made clear that this is just a fan myth.
The nuclear power station was originally supposed to be the Nuton Power Complex that appeared in "The Claws of Axos" but it was renamed the Nunton Experimental Complex instead. The real-life location used was the Oldbury nuclear power station in Gloucestershire.
The Doctor's hypnosis of Sarah by putting his hands on the sides of her head is similar to what he does in the Tenth Doctor stories "Fear Her", "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End". However, unlike these three more recent stories, in "The Hand of Fear", he does not lay Sarah down after commencing the hypnosis, and in fact, Sarah walks around and makes facial expressions for part of the conversation.
When The Doctor hypnotises Sarah she says ‘That's not fair. Not again’ in reference to "Terror of the Zygons" and "The Masque of Mandragora".
Eldrad's home was originally supposed to be the black hole of Omega 4.6. When Robert Holmes pointed out to Bob Baker and Dave Martin that the name Omega had already appeared in Doctor Who (in "The Three Doctors"; ironically this story was also written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin), they changed the name to Kastria.
Kastria is depicted as a cold and inhospitable planet, ravaged by the solar winds. Eldrad says he built barriers to keep out the winds, machines to replenish the soil and atmosphere and devised a crystalline, silicon based form for the Kastrians. It is indicated that silicon based life forms rarely occur naturally (see "The Stones of Blood").
Eldrad says he built barriers to keep out the winds, machines to replenish the soil and atmosphere and devised a crystalline, silicon based form for the Kastrians.
Eldrad has heard of the Time Lords, saying that they are pledged to uphold the laws of time and to prevent alien aggression.
The Obliteration Module was based on the design of the Martian War Machines in George Pal's 1952 film The War of the Worlds.
The Doctor explains that the TARDIS is in a state of ‘temporal grace’ meaning that no weapons are able to be used inside it. However, later in the show this function appears not to work. In the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock", the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Attack of the Cybermen" and the 2005 Tenth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways" as weapons are seen to be fired inside the Console Room in each of these later story. The Fifth Doctor evades a question about this function no longer working in the 1983 story "Arc of Infinity".
The extreme cold of Kastria might have affected the TARDIS' thermocouplings, which The Doctor tries to repair with an astro-rectifier, a multi-quantiscope and a Ganymede driver. He decides that he doesn't need the mergin nut or the Zeus plugs. Zeus plugs are also mentioned in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "The Girl in the Fireplace" and again in the 2007 special Children in Need story "Time Crash".
The original script for this story also featured an ageing Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, who had been moved from UNIT to the Extraterrestrial Xenological Intelligence Taskforce to study UFO activities. He was to be killed when he steered his spaceship into an Omegan kamikaze ship to prevent that ship from crashing into Earth. This plan did not go through due to Nicholas Courtney being unavailable for filming. The original script also featured Harry Sullivan. Both The Brigadier and Harry Sullivan are though mentioned at the end of the broadcasted version of this story when Sarah states that she will pass on The Doctor's love to both of them.
The summons to Gallifrey, which The Doctor received, is finally revealed in the following story, "The Deadly Assassin", to have been sent by The Master.
Listen out for The Doctor's stating that Gallifrey could be in Ireland. This quip is repeated in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Human Nature/The Family of Blood".
Bob Baker and Dave Martin intentionally did not write Sarah's departure scene. The script for that scene was rewritten by Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker from Robert Holmes' original version.
Despite expressing a desire to see Gallifrey at the end of the story Sarah’s wish will be granted (after a fashion) in the Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors".
Sarah Jane Smith and The Doctor each tell the other not to forget them. The Tenth Doctor says the same words to Sarah thirty-three years later when they part at the end of The Sarah Jane Adventures story "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith".
After the TARDIS departs, Sarah Jane realises that The Doctor's navigation was wrong and he has not left her on Hillview Road as planned, and probably not even in South Croydon. She reveals in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "School Reunion" that he left her in Aberdeen, more than nine hundred kilometres away.
In the final scene, Sarah is heard whistling the tune ‘Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow’. It has been reported that since Elisabeth Sladen is unable to whistle, director Lennie Mayne provided the whistling while she mimed to this tune.
A novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in January 1979. The cover art, by Roy Knipe, however, does not feature Sarah's infamous ‘Andy Pandy’ costume but is in fact inspired by a photo from "Planet of Evil".
This story was released on VHS in February 1996. It was the final video tape to include the diamond logo on the cover artwork and was deleted along with much of the rest of the Doctor Who video range only a few weeks after its initial release, making the original tape something of a collectors' item.
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The Firsts:
The first time someone makes the mistake of thinking Gallifrey to be in Ireland.
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(Position = 67 out of 159)
(Position = 96 out of 200)
